Wednesday, August 8, 2012

Transporters threaten to halt public transport

Transport
entrepreneurs and workers have threatened to halt public transport across the
country from Friday. They urged the government to fulfill their demands by
Thursday or face nationwide protests in a programme held at Reporters’ Club
today.

“We have
taken this decision as the government has ignored our demands,” said president
of Nepal Transport Entrepreneurs National Federation Yogendra Nath Karmacharya

According to
him, transport entrepreneurs and workers have decided to take this drastic step
because the government has ignored their requests from time to time. “We had
submitted our demands to the Ministry of Labour and Transport Management, and
Department of Transport Management on a number of occasions but our demands
were not fulfilled,” he said, “We only got assurance in words.”

Four major
associations — Nepal Transport Entrepreneurs National Federation, All Nepal
Transport Workers’ Association, Nepal Transport Workers’ Association and Free
Nepal Transport Workers’ Organisation — have united for the protests. The
struggle has moral support from Nepal Truck Tanker Entrepreneurs Association
too.

The
transporters have submitted a memorandum to caretaker prime minister Dr Baburam Bhattarai
too. “It’s just a memorandum we submitted to the prime minister. Our demands
have already been submitted to the department and ministries,” said coordinator
of the struggle committee Vijaya Bahadur Swar.

Transporters
and workers have demanded the government to declare roads as a peace zone and
ensure the safety of vehicles and workers during strikes and bandhs. “The roads
have become insecure. We want the government to provide us security,” said
Karmacharya.

According to
him, their major demands are the establishment of a separate ministry for
transport, and recognition of the transport sector as an industry. They have
also asked the government to withdraw the rights that were handed over to
traffic police from the transport department. “The traffic police are denying
transporters their rights,” he said.

The
government delegated the rights to check vehicle tax and other charges to the
traffic police in February this year. Similarly, the government has also
decided to provide incentives from the fines collected to the traffic police.

Transport
workers are not included in social security benefit, so we are also fighting
for it, said president of Free Nepal Transport Workers’ Organisation Rajeev
Ghimire.

He also
demanded a separate insurance scheme for transport workers. The government has
an insurance scheme of Rs 50,000 for passengers, drivers, and helpers, but
third-party insurance is about Rs 500,000. It is not justifiable, he added.